The present invention refers to a template device for the control of the movements of diamond milling cutters or the like, to be mounted on stone or marble slab border polishing machines.
As is known, different operative machines are utilized in the area of the working of stone or marble materials. These machines include the ones that form and polish the borders of slabs made of granite, marble, stone and glazed materials.
The so-called slab border polishing machines permit polishing the slab borders, for instance, when it is necessary to produce kitchen planes and shelves or surfaces provided with a toroidal border. The machine is therefore equipped with components that permit the raw slab to be subjected to the roughing and polishing operations so as to obtain a perfectly polished slab border.
The conventional slab border polishing machines are provided with a horizontal supporting plane provided with a conveyor belt. The marble or stone slab to be worked is placed on the conveyor belt so that the slab advances progressively.
In the proximity of the rear of the machine and more precisely, beyond the conveyor belt, there is a working unit provided with working and polishing tools. As the slab advances linearly at a constant speed, the tools work and polish the slab.
The working and polishing tools include a series of heads. Each head is provided with a grinder. The heads are arranged side by side and in parallel succession on supports that permit the heads to be displaced angularly with respect to the working center of the slab border. Some of the heads and, in particular, the ones located upstream with respect to the direction of feed of the slab to be worked, are employed to form the slab border, for instance when it is necessary to obtain toroidal profiles.
In such cases, first the slab is beveled and then, the slab is placed on the conveyor belt to be subjected rounding off through the diamond milling cutters or grinders. As the slab advances, it is polished through further grinders for a perfect finishing.
In some cases, the diamond milling grinders are shaped grinders provided with a fixed shaft, which necessitates expensive, milling cutters of different dimensions. In addition, these milling cutters deform easily and damage rapidly.
In other known solutions, the cutter spindle is mounted on arcuate guides or connecting rod devices and/or four-bar linkages. In these cases, there is the problem that the constructive structure is complex and the wear and tear is high because the kinematic gears must be able to draw the head movement according to concentric shapes to the profile to be created.
The known type of actuation of the diamond grinders in the slab border polishing machines was very complex and expensive and involved many difficulties regarding the construction and operation of the machine. The costs of such machines and the costs of their operation were too high.